Whispering_Jack

I think AOD9604 is still a live issue and might come back to haunt Essendon at some future time if ASADA or WADA don't get what they want through the TB4 claim. The manner in which ASADA is proceeding would be very much influenced by Judge Downe's review of the evidence and it seems to me that he is confident that the TB4 claim will stick and there's no need therefore to open a new can of worms with AOD9604 which would give Essendon some wriggle room with a "he said, she said" argument about what the club might or might not have been told by someone at ASADA. On what I've heard and read there is little doubt that some Essendon players intended to have AOD9604 injected into them and they probably did and it can be proven to the standard required. However, the removal of AOD9604 gives Essendon one less leg to rely on to stretch out the matter and therefore creates greater possibilities for an earlier outcome. That said, it seems clear that the Essendon tactic will be to use lawfare to wear ASADA down which is Little's standard modus operandum but one which is unlikely to work against a government agency backed by WADA.

Check out whose jumper is handing in the restaurant behind Mick and Dane in the snapshot close to the bottom of the article - Magpie Dane Swan star guest at Mick Gatto restaurant fundraiser Methinks with Mick on side, that #5 will be safe to continue his coaching career for many years to come once he serves his suspension in two months time. All it takes is a friendly word in the ASADA ear from Mick and everything will be sunshine and roses.

Why disagree with Robbo? He was one of my favourites and I loved it when the #24 soared above a pack to take a screamer.What did he say?

ASADA show-cause notices for Dons Former WADA president John Fahey praises ASADA's issuing of show-cause notices to players ASADA boss issues warning after AFL player anti-doping notices

Billy named on a HFF this week - SA U18 team selected

My suggestion for the new Essendon theme song:-

Football fever usual dominates everything in Melbourne at this time of the year but in 1964, the Beatles were visiting the country and they overshadowed every event. Two days before the Fab Four were due to appear at Melbourne's Festival Hall, the MCG played host to what was then football's most famous clash of traditional rivals on 13 June, 1964. Melbourne and Collingwood attracted 86,660 to a bruising battle between two of the great sides of the era. As often happened in those days, Melbourne won. Melbourne 3.2.20 5.4.34 8.10.58 10.13.73 Collingwood 2.1.13 3.4.22 5.9.39 8.15.63 THE TEAM B: Neil Crompton Bernie Massey Bob Miller HB: Don Williams Bob "Tassie" Johnson Brian Leahy C: Brian Dixon "Hassa" Mann Graeme Watson HF: Bryan Kenneally Graeme Jacobs Barrie Vagg F: John Lord Barry Bourke John Townsend FOLL: Graham Wise Ron Barassi Ken Emselle 19/20: Peter McLean David Robbie Goals Barry Bourke Graeme Jacobs John Townsend Barrie Vagg 2 Ken Emselle Bryan Kenneally Best Ron Barassi Barrie Vagg Hassa Mann Bryan Kenneally Don Williams Brian Dixon Melbourne got the early break on its rival but failed to make the most of its opportunities and led by only two goals at the main break. The Pies came back early in the third term and it was an absorbing battle from then on until Barrie Vagg scored a late sealer near the end of the game. The crowd for the game was overshadowed by the numbers who crowded Exhibition Street the next day to catch a glimpse of the Beatles. The story of their concert at Festival Hall had a resonance with football when stand-in drummer was dropped to make way for Ringo Starr, returning from illness - http://www.beatlesbible.com/1964/06/15/live-festival-hall-melbourne

The case against Jack was based on an ABC report about SMS messages between Dank and Dr. Bates (a former Melbourne club doctor) suggesting that he should be prescribed a cream containing AOD9604. It has subsequently been reported that Jack was in the clear. According to Gerard Whateley on AFL360 the show cause notices don't refer to the use of AOD9604 anyway. The inference is that the notices relate only to the alleged use of the "bad" Thymosin. I would prefer to wait on official confirmation that this is in fact the case but if it's true then Jack would appear to have nothing to worry about.

2014 Peter Jackson VFL NORTH BALLARAT v CASEY SCORPIONS Saturday 14th June Eureka Stadium at 2.00pm NORTH BALLARAT B: Lockyer Cook Tate HB: Warren Boseley Hoy C: McKenzie Jacobs Horbury HF: Keeble Curnow Couch F: George Staley Schache FOLL: Wallace Dumont Peters I/C (from): Carey* Delaney Giampaolo Grigg Kiel Powell Rippon Tsitas Wilkins CASEY SCORPIONS B: Terlich, Georgiou, Nicholson HB: Strauss, Panozza, Blease C: Toumpas, Evans, Barry HF: Kennedy-Harris, Smith, Rennie* F: Best, Fitzpatrick, Page FOLL: Gawn, Tapscott, Michie I/C (from): Anderson, Corry, Davis, Drew, Harmes, Lang, J McDonald, Rosier, Rutherford, Saunders, Shiels, Thomas, Welsh * 23rd player The Development League team has another bye

No. You can fit Chapman and Goddard in there somewhere.

Not the best of news from our point of view because the Bombers seem to lift every time they are under pressure on this issue. Of course, the actual serving of the notices is different and will inevitably be an even bigger distraction than anything that's occurred on the past.

Looking forward to team selection tonight, I have a feeling that it's time to make some changes and not just for the sake of change. We will be coming off a six day break so it might be timely to take some pressure of the younger blokes like Kennedy-Harris and Salem and to bring in a few who played last Saturday like e.g. Blease, Kent, McKenzie (who would be coming off an eight day break).. Lamashtu is right about the need to keep the tabs on Heppell - Bomber Thompson has already indicated he will be relying more on Heppell now that Jobe's out for the rest of the year (and who knows - it might be two years after that too )

KNIGHTMARE'S OTHER EARLY DRAFT PROFILES

Personally, I would be gobsmacked if the other clubs allowed us to pick Billy Stretch in the third round.

KNIGHTMARE'S ROUND 3

KNIGHTMARE'S ROUND 2

KNIGHTMARE'S ROUND 1

One of the most comprehensive of the phantom drafts is the one produced by Knightmare on bigfooty. He usually comes out early in the season and then reviews his work on a regular basis. There's always food for thought in his work and, as he's posted an update this week, I thought it was a good time to look at what he's thinking at the halfway mark of the season. He starts with his 2014 draft power rankings:

As a general rule that's the case but if the umpire stops play to line the player kicking for goal and signals time on then he must restart play. As I said above, invariably the player will be allowed to play on because it's after a mark has been taken and you should be allowed to play on in those circumstances. In this case where Jetta was outside 50 and never really lining up for goal, the umpire was being ridiculous but he will be supported by the umpires adviser who will argue that he was correct technically. Like many of the game's rules, that's OK if there is consistency - there never is with that one in those circumstances and we were well and truly dudded. In the instant that Vince kicked it through, you could see the team lift and a goal then would have involved a centre bounce rather than a kick in which gave Collingwood the ball and the capacity to move it into attack. We simply don't know whether Collingwood would have received that late goal courtesy of some dumb sequences of play from us in the last minute of that quarter.

I don't really have a problem with the low number of free kicks we received on the day but rather with the fact that Collingwood picked up three or four technical ones which, together with the Jetta/Vince situation had a profound influence on the outcome. Technically, we can't argue with disallowing the Vince goal but the problem is that you often see the umpires call play on in exactly the same situation. A goal to us at that point in time would have put us 4 points down with very little time left to play in the third quarter. Who knows what the end result would have been in those circumstances?

Arrogance?How about this item from AAP -

Fremantle got 4 frees in the previous round v Western Bulldogs.But seriously, in a game where they aren't paying many free kicks anyway, how does a kick along the wing to the HFF get paid as deliberate OOB?

Paul Amy in the Leader Newspapers Collingwood underlines finals credentials by seeing off Scorpions

I've been out of town for a few weeks and thanks to the bye, I managed to miss only the last two games but it's great to be back, especially for the Collingwood game. Worried that we might be living on the extraordinary amount of hype we've been getting across the media lately. Hope there aren't any swollen heads or anything like that. We need a big crowd and a 5 goal win. I'll take both.

Who wants to be the No. 1 draft pick?